Video Interview: CABLEready’s Gary Lico

NEW YORK: In this exclusive video, Gary Lico, the president and CEO of CABLEready, talks about the new original production Intersections, which premieres next month on Speed Network, and also offers his perspective on the current mood among international buyers.

When Gary Lico set up CABLEready in 1992, he founded the company on two main principles: finding out as much as possible about the programming he and his team were distributing, and making sure they would explain each program well, so that buyers could understand how that program could serve their needs.

Only six weeks after the company launched, Lico made his first sale: Nickelodeon acquired the children’s series Cappelli and Company and sales to A&E and Travel Channel followed soon after that. Lico then met a college professor who was holding seminars and Lico wondered if those seminars could become the basis for a TV show. In fact, they did. That was the beginning of the very successful and critically acclaimed Inside the Actors Studio series, which became the driving program of the company’s international distribution business.

Today CABLEready is a major supplier of factual programming for channels in the U.S and around the world. It is known for series such as Forensic Files and The Directors. The company also represents the entire catalogue from The New York Times, which includes TRAUMA: Life in the E.R., and some of ReelzChannel’s key entertainment programs, such as Hollywood Dailies and What I Learned from the Movies.

CABLEready has recently begun producing its own series, with Intersections leading off the roster.